Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you • Hacker News Board

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#131

Post by raynr » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:34 PM UTC

This is, still, an extremely common practice here in Singapore. In my experience this is because of racism. I say this because I present as the majority race and I know Chinese landlords who have complained to me, in person, about "all those Indians taking over the neighbourhood", and many worse things that they think are funny and that I would laugh at because I present as the majority race.

The common reason given is that Indian cooking involves lots of spices that stain and remain in the kitchen, necessitating either a kitchen overhaul prior to renting to a new tenant, or renting to another Indian family. I understand and am sympathetic towards this reason, having frustratingly burnt-in a few permanent turmeric stains into my work surfaces. But just a little. To be a landlord in Singapore is to be of a financial status that most Singaporeans are not a part of.

And again, I also know it is simply a smoke screen, because these same landlords are also the ones complaining about "all of the Indians in the neighbourhood"! And making variations of the blinding smile joke, bobbing their heads mockingly, wrinkling their noses in disgust at the imagined smell of food or perfumes or incense, complaining about the noise they make, and advising you earnestly to never invest in property in known Indian enclaves.

Thank goodness not everyone is like this, and thank goodness for the enforced racial quotas of government housing.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#132

Post by spywaregorilla » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:35 PM UTC

starkd wrote: post #122

spywaregorilla wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nearly every one of them will create an exception once they have a reasonable conversation with someone from another race. An exception like "oh well you're one of the good ones"? > I have never met a full-fledged racist (in U.S. here). Peronally, I think they are a very small insular group, if they exist at all. Talk to old people if you want some disappointment then.

The "exceptions" is where racist attitudes get broken down. It creates the cognitive dissonance. It doesn't happen right away, but its a significant step in the right direction. Yes. This includes most "old people". A lot of the talk an jabs or using racial epithets is superficial when you get right down to it. At least, in my experience.

Well allow me to throw my two anecotes into the ring. My grandfather is an asian immigrant who dreamed of coming to the US, which he did late in life. He died in a hospital angrily denying help from black staff members. My grandmother is a sweet old italian lady. She got real mad when one of her grandkids started dating a black guy. She doesn't believe in mixed race couples / people. I'm mixed race but of course I'm "One of the good ones" largely because I'm whiteish. I assure you her liking me has not changed her general opinion at all.

They're very nice at the surface level. You wouldn't expect it, but oh boy was it there an it was deep.

I really, really do not believe that the racial epithets are superficial. It's not a uniquely old person problem by any definition, but it's extremely common.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#133

Post by obvioustemp2 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:35 PM UTC

TomVDB wrote: post #10

Was surprised to see “Singapore”, expected “Bay Area.” When I left my last rental after buying a house, my elderly white landlord asked me to help him put the property on Craigslist. When I did so and mentioned the Cupertino school district, he asked me to remove that part because “it would attract too many Indian families with kids” to avoid the curry smell. He had no issue with other Asian ethnicities, the previous…

Indian here. My company had booked a B&B when i was staying in UK for few months. Once i got Indian takeout, the landlady did not want that to be brought to the room because of curry smell. But the whole building smelled when they cooked some meat/pork. Even the bath towels smelled. I suppose its what the smell you are used to.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#134

Post by b112 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #94

jokethrowaway wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've obviously never been in the position of being elderly, living in a country where pension funds got dilapidated by politicians (no matter how much you paid into it), needing money and your only source of income being a flat you're renting. My dad had one squatter, who was a respectable 60 years old lady: she just stopped paying and the legal and justice system is so shit that it took more than a year to get her…

So the legal system needs to be fixed. Putting the power of sheltering people into the hands of landlords is ridiculous. The government wouldn't decide who lives in your property. You can always choose to not rent it of course, or rent it to a friend. But if you want rent it and you have someone willing to take it you can't say no.

This would only be fair, if by law rent is paid before the month owed, and a person can be evicted with one day's arrears.

Oh, and a deposit for damage paid too, which has no bearing on the above rent and late eviction.

That might start to be fair with your logic.

I might add, this is the same logic with pre or post pay things. Prepaid phone vs postpay on credit...

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#135

Post by system16 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

> 99.co is now tackling this by introducing an “all-races-welcome” indicator on its website.

Despite all the patting themselves on the back, when they implemented this they only added an "all-races-welcome" tag to listings that allowed all races. Landlords who discriminated against others based on race were still very much welcome on the platform.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#136

Post by KMnO4 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

Bedon292 wrote: post #95

rowanG077 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because someone who has a stolen food from a store once is a bad tenant? Or someone who once forget to pay a credit card bill is bad tenant? Landlords should simply not be allowed to deny a potential tenant unless they can't pay. You don't play games with living essentials.

Does forgetting to pay a credit card bill once do anything to credit checks? I don't know if I got lucky, or what. I forgot one once when I thought I had put it on auto pay. It was late enough that the next bill was what made me realize but it never showed up on my credit report. How would you have perspective tenants prove they can pay reliably? A pay stub alone cannot tell if the person is reliable. They could have…

There’s a lot of factors that make up your credit score. Sometimes (usually?) a late payment isn’t reported until the following billing cycle (so essentially 2 months) meaning if you’re otherwise very prompt you’ll be fine.

For future reference, if you ever miss a payment you can always call the company and get it resolved before the credit bureaus know.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#137

Post by em-bee » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

spywaregorilla wrote: post #103

usrusr wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that most of the world is worse (or different?), but America is still special because it has so much pure racism that isn't a blend with xenophobia. Here in Germany for example, black skin Africans report wildly different amounts of discrimination: the lucky ones are those who, due to some inexplicable subtility, tend to get misidentified as African Americans. Suddenly they are on the other side of that stran…

I had no idea people identified as African Americans outside of America

why would they not?

do caucasian americans identify as europeans outside of america?

or mexicans as spanisch?

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#138

Post by DiggyJohnson » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:37 PM UTC

em-bee wrote: post #129

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking, what would be an example of pure, overt, common racism in American life?

for one the fact that most americans are aware of the existence of racism and openly debate it. whereas european rasism is hidden, and many people are unaware that it even exists because they don't see it. in germany, racism is considered a feature of the extreme right, ignoring that general xenophobia is more widespread than that. european racism is also more xenophobia than about race, which is exemplified by the d…

I’m sorry, but having a discussion about racism isn’t really an example of overt racism. What is this discourse based on in the modern experience of being a minority American?

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#139

Post by wikfwikf » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:37 PM UTC

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #107

wikfwikf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim that the US is not perfect and the claim that it is far less racist than the rest of the world are very very different.

I don’t see why that is the case, other than the fact that you disagree with the second sentence and not the first. Doesn’t make the sentences logically incompatible.

I didn't say that they are logically incompatible.

If Henry the Eighth said "I am not perfect, but I have treated my wives far better than anyone else in the world", then the admission that he is not perfect should not be sufficient to dismiss factual challenges to the second part of the claim.

Re: Sorry, your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you

#140

Post by DiggyJohnson » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:37 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #121

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking, what would be an example of pure, overt, common racism in American life?

Literally everything that hurts people whose ancestors have been born Americans for more generations than they can trace back?

I’m asking for an example, not the definition of racism. Sorry to put it so bluntly.